Yahoo Is 20: The 20 Biggest Moments in Travel in the Last 20 Years
The last 20 years have seen more innovation and changes in the way we travel than any other period since the turn of the last century. Today it’s hard to imagine not groaning our way through airport security or expecting Internet on the plane.
What would we do without booking apps? Where did all of the travel agents go?
In celebration of Yahoo’s 20th birthday, we’ve compiled a list of 20 things from the last 20 years that have most shaped the way we travel.
Photo: iStock
1. Terrorism. It’s hard not to mention the cataclysmic events over the past two decades that have forever changed the way we fly. Since 9/11, we’ve seen the creation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Department of Homeland Security. And thanks to the shoe bomber (2001) and the underwear bomber (2009), even our shoes and our liquids are under scrutiny. Traveling through an airport will never be the same.
Photo: Getty Images
2. Richard Branson. Richard Branson may have started Virgin Atlantic in 1984, but his last 20 years have been truly transformative, with Virgin Galactic (2004), Virgin America (2007), Virgin Hotels (2015), and Virgin Cruises (coming in 2020).
Photo: Getty Images
3. Steve Jobs. This Apple genius transformed the digital experience, and in turn the travel experience. Jobs oversaw everything from the creation of the ultimate travel buddy, the iPhone (2007), to the iPad (2010), an accessible, travel-friendly tablet.
Photo: Getty Images
4. Jet Blue. Since the launch of this budget-minded airline in 1998, flying has never been more fun or affordable.
Photo: Stocksy
5. Empowered travelers. With the creation of sites like Expedia (1996) and TripAdvisor (2000), the travel paradigm shifted. Travelers have been handed the power, whether that means having the ability to book their own travels or the freedom to be a critic.
Photo: Stocksy
6. GPS. Navigating the globe became easier in 2000 when the U.S. government opened up the GPS network, making the formerly elusive signals available to the public.
Photo: Getty Images
7. In-flight Wi-Fi. In 1996, Dutch electrical engineer Vic Hayes developed a wireless way to connect to the Internet. Four years later, Boeing pioneered in-flight connectivity with Connexion by Boeing. It’s now defunct, but it forever changed how we function on planes.
(Photo: Bloomberg/Getty Images)
8. The flat-bed airline seat. Seats in business class and first class reclined deeply before this, but when British Airways created the first true flat-bed airline seat in 1996, travelers could finally fly in comfort.
Photo: Stocksy
9. Noise-canceling headphones. Electrical engineer Amar Gopal Bose made air travel quieter and more comfortable when he invented noise-canceling headphones in 2000.
Photo: iStock
10. Social media. Sites like Friendster (2002) and MySpace (2003) ushered in a new era of sharing your travels with the world. Now, with Facebook (2004), Twitter (2006), Instagram (2010), and Pinterest (2010), it’s possible to over-share across many mediums.
(Photo: Stocksy)
11. Video chatting. Communicating via video went from a Jetsons cartoon concept to a reality with the 2003 launch of Skype; later, FaceTime (2010) made it even easier … and free! Now that elusive hookup in Berlin could become a video-chat buddy … and possibly much, much more.
Photo: Stocksy
12. The euro. With the creation of a unified monetary system in 1999, traveling in Europe became that much more seamless.
Photo: Stocksy
13. No more smoking on planes. We could all breathe more freely in 2000, when the U.S. Congress banned smoking on flights to and from the United States.
Photo: Westin Hotels
14. The Heavenly Bed. Sure, there were comfy hotel mattresses before this (at the Four Seasons, for one), but when Westin branded the Heavenly Bed in 1999, the hotel bedding wars really began.
15. Airbnb. With the 2008 launch of this home-rental service, you could save money and go local. Plus, now everyone can be a hotelier.
16. Ridesharing. What Airbnb did for home rentals, Uber (2009) and Lyft (2012) did for the transportation industry. Now, anyone can be a taxi driver.
Photo: Getty Images
17. TSA Pre-Check and Global Entry. Global Entry (2008) and TSA Pre-Check (2011) helped combat the hell of security and customs.
18. Full-body scanner. Love it or hate it, when the full-body scanner launched in 2010, security became that much more secure.
Photo: Canned Muffins/Flickr
19. Malarone. This drug, with fewer side effects than its predecessors, improved the fight against malaria when it launched in 2000.
Photo: Corbis Images
20. Food trucks. They’ve been around for a while, but the mobile food concept went viral — and gourmet — in 2000 when Roy Choi launched his Kogi barbecue truck in Los Angeles. Now, good food can travel to where you are.
